Interior Dept. Suspends Alaskan Oil and Gas Drilling Program Started by Trump Administration

WASHINGTON - The Department of the Interior announced Tuesday that it has suspended the implementation of a Trump-era oil and gas leasing program on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The suspension comes after an executive order issued by President Joe Biden on his first day in office.

The Coastal Plain makes up about 1.5 million acres of ANWR's roughly 19 million acres, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. On Jan. 6, more than 437,000 acres of land on the Coastal Plain was leased to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), Knik Arm Services LLC, and Regenerate Alaska Inc, according to the Bureau of Land Management.

"The coastal plain, also known as the 1002 Area, is believed to hold a mean estimate of 10.6 billion barrels of recoverable oil," the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) said in a press release.

https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/interior-dept-suspends-alaskan-oil-and-gas-drilling-program-started-by-trump-administration